Updated: Jan 03, 2023 By: Dessign Team
As soon as Gutenberg became a part of the WordPress, there were constant discussions concerning its functionality and rationality. WordPress community was almost instantly divided into two camps, which had drastically different views as for Gutenberg and its future usage.
One stated that Gutenberg as a new content editor was the worst decision WordPress could make. “The interface isn’t user-friendly, there are no traditional WordPress options, everything is build with blocks, that only confuses and does not simplifies the user experience” – these are just some phases of hundreds similar that were said by the indignant people.
But why were they so emotional? What is the reason of such opinion? In our post you will find the answers. Keep reading!
Another “camp” wasn’t that quick to announce their thoughts as for new Gutenberg editor. These people took their time and tried to figure out what is Gutenberg, what advantages it has for users and how can Gutenberg change the whole editing experience? Best Free Gutenberg Blocks plugins for WordPress Website
Once the WordPress community did that, their opinion on Gutenberg was announced and what’s interesting – it was the exact opposite to what was said by the first camp. “Wow, abilities Gutenberg empowers you with are indeed great and versatile. The whole website building process is more structuralized and everything has its place. The best choice for people who know little about coding.”
Download Free Gutenberg Starter Theme and start building beautiful website with common blocks and add ons. There are many pre build components that will make the process much easier and faster.
Obviously that opinions of the first and the second camp have absolutely nothing in common – except Gutenberg, of course. We will try to find out why some people do like Gutenberg and others don’t even want to give it a chance.
Updated: January 03, 2021
Our world constantly develops and doesn’t stay in one place. Hence, just after new WordPress 5.0 release, many WordPress software providers had something interesting to propose – addons.
Why does Gutenberg need addons?
After elementary testing of Gutenberg, became obvious that the number of existing blocks and their options are limited for building splendid and chick websites. The blocks options are pretty handy for blogs owners but still customization isn’t on the high level. That’s why many WordPress plugins providers understood that they can both help and profit from it and started building their own blocks with so needed additional features for better and extended customisation options.
So, Gutenberg indeed needs addons if you, as a user, want to receive a high-quality product which corresponds to your expectations and wishes. They open absolutely new never-seen-before experience of easy website building without complicated CSS codelines which plays a crucial role for new to WordPress people. But experienced users also have many features to play with – one of them is custom CSS code field where they can add great options which aren’t supported by blocks.
Top 5 Addons for Gutenberg
Getwid – Gutenberg Blocks by MotoPress
Getwid Blocks – are professionally tailored free additional blocks for Gutenberg that aim at extending existing functionality by enhancing blocks functions. For now, the number of Getwid blocks is the biggest among competitors – 30+ and there are constant updates so that you can keep up with the latest innovations. They suit perfectly to any website type and do not overload your pages with excessive codes.
Key features:
– Perfect interplay with WordPress theme styles
– Easy inline editing with multiple settings within each block
– Smart configuration settings
– Detailed Free video tutorials on YouTube
– Powerful unique Section Block and Banner Block
– One-of-a-kind Image Slider block with advanced and handy settings
Getwid blocks are very easy to use and the customization options they propose are really great and extended. For example, you can create your own unique Section block that you will be able to use in future – so-called reusable block. There is a free Getwid Base theme fully built with Getwid blocks so that you can see them in action.
ZeGuten plugin is an excellent tool for building the whole website via its 13 blocks. It is very native and easy to work with even for a newcomer, especially because you don’t need any coding skills. Moreover, each block is also SEO friendly, which will make your website hussle-free.
Key features:
– high responsiveness for any device, whether it is a desktop, tablet or mobile phone
– 5 post layouts: carousel, grid, listing, masonry and chess
– custom and flexible columns
– promotion via banners and blurbs
– show infographics via progress bars, circles of progress and countdown timers
Blocks:
– advanced map
– blurbs
– banners
– carousel
– countdown timer
– circle progress
– headings
– icon list
– image comparison
– posts
– pricing tables
– progress bar
– sections
Kadence Blocks is a set of additional custom blocks for Gutenberg content editor that contributes to smooth and effortless website building experience. The total number of blocks is 11, though not very big but the options they provide the users with are pretty decent and of a big scale.
Key features:
-Responsive controls
-Layout library
-Great typography settings
-Unique multiple columns block
-Draggable borders
Blocks:
- Row Layout
- Advanced Gallery
- Advanced Heading
- Advanced Button
- Tabs
- Accordion
- Testimonials
- Icon
- Spacer / Divider
- Info Box
- Icon List
With Kadence Blocks one can create beautiful layouts with structurized columns and numerous settings tools. For example, with Row Layout Block you can have 1-6 columns and greatly customise them
Atomic Blocks is a collection of custom blocks created for building any type of a website with new WordPress content editor – Gutenberg. This collection comprises 15 unique blocks, using which you can easily create engaging website content, customize pages layouts and build your own unique element on a website such as buttons, icons etc.
Key features:
-Can be used with any WordPress theme
-Unique blocks such as Drop Cap, Inline Notice Block, etc.
-Beautifully designed layouts
-User-friendly interface
-Future releases and new blocks
Blocks:
- Section & Layout Block
- Advanced Columns Block
- Newsletter Block
- Pricing Block
- Post Grid Block
- Container Block
- Testimonial Block
- Inline Notice Block
- Accordion Block
- Share Icons Block
- Call-To-Action Block
- Customizable Button Block
- Spacer & Divider Block
- Author Profile Block
- Drop Cap Block
There is an Atomic Blocks Theme that will help you to start with this great addon and WordPress in general.
CoBlock is an awesome collection of 27 custom blocks for the new Gutenberg WordPress block editor. Though the amount of blocks isn’t small, they do not overload your WordPress website – on the contrary, they are very lightweight and powerful at the same time. This addon comprises pretty much everything you may need for a website.
Key features:
-Super lightweight
-Advanced custom typography controls
-Free video tutorials
-Exceptional Row and Column blocks
-Extended settings within each custom block
CoBlocks addon empowers you to create your own unique designs and layouts without much efforts and time. Blocks are pretty easy in usage and WordPress users of any experience will be able to work with them and receive the desirable results.
Gutenberg blocks – Ultimate Addons
Gutenberg Blocks is a powerful set of custom Gutenberg blocks by Brainstorm Force. With them the whole website building procedure is simplified and the only actions you need to perform is to add a custom block and choose the needed settings without a single code line.
Key features:
-Ready-to-use demos
-Detailed articles on blocks features
-Extended styling options
-Option to disable certain blocks
-Advanced typography functions
Ultimate Addons – is pretty much everything you need to build a beautiful and attractive website of any scale. All blocks are very flexible and provide you with only pleasant and smooth experience.
Insights
Gutenberg as a new default WordPress content editor has many contradictions and for someone it becomes very complicated – whether to choose the new editor or not and what addon suits it best and gives the biggest range of useful features.
The answer to the question why some people hate Gutenberg is pretty simple – they aren’t used to the new interface, they don’t want to learn and change, they don’t want to go out of the comfort zone! But they don’t even know what they lose by doing so.
Passionate discussions around Gutenberg content editor will still be seen on the Internet forums and at various conferences for a long time. This topic is rather disputable and the appearance of the new addons to it only increases the interest and people talk even more about it.
Such a tendency, that people discuss WordPress and Gutenberg, is really great, since it makes people experience everything on their own, study each block, understand how to work with them and more importantly, now they don’t need hundreds of plugins because blocks are multifunctional and contain everything for website building.
As you can see, blocks for Gutenberg are developing very fast and each addons provider wants to give something unique and special to its users. But not only blocks evolve, so does Gutenberg itself as well. In the future updates Gutenberg will have more unique blocks so that users won’t have a need to download additional third-party plugins to enhance its possibilities. But here comes another question – could the original blocks indeed substitute addons or will Gutenberg simply copy all of them? Both of the questions don’t have the exact answer for now, only after the new WordPress update we will be able to give some future projections.
Keep in mind, that WordPress is a volunteer organisation. They don’t have huge advertising campaigns; their popularity was gained by truthful and dedicated work of thouthands of people. The more we speak about new WordPress upcomings and innovations, the more people open something new for them and discover how diverse the website building process can be.
Gutenberg addons are surely worth trying! They are (mostly) fully free and offers a wide range of customisation options for the users of all levels. Many of addons have nice sets of free online tutorials – both videos and articles. Give a try to Gutenberg now and have the best effortless experience of website building!